Lidded storage box for vehicles

ABSTRACT

A composite lid for a vehicle storage container for use in a truck bed has an outer sheet metal member including a top portion having a first inner surface with a rim portion extending around a periphery of the top portion. The lid has an inner sheet metal member positioned in a spaced apart relationship to the top portion, where the inner sheet member has a second inner surface opposed to the first inner surface to define an enclosed interior. The lid has a sandwich panel fixedly secured in the enclosed interior for reinforcing the structural integrity of the lid, where the panel has a corrugated core bonded to the interior of both the inner and outer sheet metal members. The panel is composed of the corrugated core of a cellulosic honeycomb structure bonded between an upper paper layer and a lower paper layer.

The present invention relates to storage containers for mounting tovehicles, and in particular to covered external storage containers fortrucks.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Truck bed tool boxes are a common accessory for pick-up trucks whichhave limited storage capabilities. These boxes are typically designedfor outdoor exposure and are mounted in an open bed of the pick-uptruck, generally just to the rear of the passenger compartment. The toolboxes have a rectangular open topped receptacle which is covered by oneor more lids, which are attached by hinges along an upper edge of thereceptacle. The tool boxes also employ lift cylinders to help retain thelid in an open position. For durability purposes, the tool boxes aretypically constructed of sheet material with individual panels welded ormechanically fastened to provide the box structure.

The box lids can encounter repetitive loadings and are thereforesusceptible to undesirable deformation. Current lid designs use heavystructural members fastened on the underside of the lid to increaseplanar rigidity, thereby inhibiting the lid from becoming permanentlydeformed and therefore misaligned relative to the box. This resistanceto deformation inhibits any misalignment that can result in sealingfailure between the box and lid, which can result in costly repair orreplacement of the tool box.

One disadvantage with current lid designs is that they are undesirablytoo heavy to be solely supported by the lift cylinders due to the needfor the heavy structural members. U.S. Pat. appl. No. 2001032848 byGiddens et al. describes a lid having a top sheet member, a liner sheetmember, and an expanded foam material deposited between the members in adefined interior cavity. Although the lid design by Giddens et al. doesnot use individual structural members, the presence of the foam canstill produce a reinforced lid that is too heavy for support solely bythe lift cylinders.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a composite lid toobviate or mitigate at least some of the above presented disadvantages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Truck bed tool boxes are a common accessory for pick-up trucks and aretypically designed for outdoor exposure and are mounted in an open bedof the pick-up truck. The tool boxes have a rectangular open toppedreceptacle which is covered by one or more lids, which are attached byhinges along an upper edge of the receptacle. The tool boxes also employlift cylinders to help retain the lid in an open position. The box lidscan encounter repetitive loadings and are therefore susceptible toundesirable deformation, such that current lid designs use heavystructural members fastened on the underside of the lid to increaseplanar rigidity, thereby inhibiting the lid from becoming permanentlydeformed and therefore misaligned relative to the box. The use ofadditional structural members can make the lids undesirably too heavy tobe solely supported by the lift cylinders. Alternatively, a compositelid for a vehicle storage container has an outer sheet metal memberincluding a top portion having a first inner surface with a rim portionextending around a periphery of the top portion. The lid has an innersheet metal member positioned in a spaced apart relationship to the topportion, where the inner sheet member has a second inner surface opposedto the first inner surface to define an enclosed interior. The lid has alightweight sandwich panel fixedly secured in the enclosed interior forreinforcing the structural integrity of the lid, where the panel has acorrugated core bonded to the interior of both the inner and outer sheetmetal members. The panel can be composed of the corrugated core of acellulosic honeycomb structure bonded between an upper paper layer and alower paper layer.

According to the present invention there is provided a composite lid fora vehicle storage container. The lid comprises: an outer sheet memberincluding a top portion having a first inner surface with a rim portionextending around a periphery of the top portion; an inner sheet memberpositioned in a spaced apart relationship to the top portion, the innersheet member having a second inner surface opposed to the first innersurface to define an enclosed interior; and a sandwich member fixedlysecured in the enclosed interior for reinforcing the structuralintegrity of the lid, the sandwich member having a corrugated corebonded on one side to the first inner surface and bonded on the otherside to the second inner surface.

According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provideda method of manufacturing a composite lid for a vehicle storagecontainer. The method comprises the steps of: forming an outer sheetmember to include a top portion having a first inner surface and a rimportion extending around a periphery of the top portion; bonding oneside of a sandwich member to the first inner surface, the sandwichmember having a corrugated core; and bonding a second inner surface ofan inner sheet member to the other side of the sandwich member forpositioning the inner sheet member in a spaced apart relationship to thetop portion, the second inner surface opposed to the first inner surfaceto define an enclosed interior; wherein the sandwich member reinforcesthe structural integrity of the lid by having the corrugated core bondedto both the first inner surface and the second inner surface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features of the preferred embodiments of the inventionwill become more apparent in the following detailed description in whichreference is made to the appended drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top perspective view of a lidded container;

FIG. 2 shows an open perspective view of the container of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a section 3-3 side view of the composite lid of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a bottom view of the composite lid of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is an expanded view of a honeycomb stiffener of the container ofFIG. 1;

FIG. 6 a is a side view of the stiffener of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a process for manufacturing the lid of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 8 is a further embodiment of the composite lid of FIG. 4.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a container 10 includes a cover or lid 12for covering a storage receptacle or box 14 that is adapted forfastening to a vehicle (not shown), such as but not limited to in theinterior of an open cargo area of a pick-up truck. The box 14 hasupwardly extending end walls 16 connected on either end to upwardlyextending side walls 18, around a periphery of a bottom wall 20, todefine an open topped interior 22. The end walls 16 can be configured toprovide generally horizontal support surfaces 24 for attaching to theadjacent vehicle (not shown). The lid 12 is connected to the box 14along one edge by a hinge 26 or other suitable flexible means forpermitting the lid 12 to remain attached to the box 14 in both open andclosed configurations, as shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 1 respectively. Aseries of hydraulic or pneumatic actuators 28 are connected between thebox 14 and lid 12 to allow the lid 12 to remain in the openconfiguration, as desired by a user (not shown). A lock or fasteningmeans 30 can be provided on the box 14 for coupling with a correspondinglock 32 on the lid 12, in order to secure the lid 12 when positioned inthe closed configuration. The box 14 and lid 12 are preferably made ofsheet metal material, such as steel or aluminum, approximately 1.5-2.0mm in thickness. The exterior surface of the container 10 can bepatterned with a raised relief 34, such as but not limited to diamondplate construction.

Referring to FIG. 3, the lid 12 has an outer sheet member 36 fastened toan inner sheet member 38 to define an enclosed interior 40. The sheetmembers 36, 38 also form a rim 39 extending around a periphery of thelid 12, as well as a top portion 43 and side portions 37. The rim 39extends around the periphery of the lid 12 and has a hem portion 41 onthree sides of the lid 12 which excludes the rim 39 adjacent to thehinge 26. The inner and outer sheet members 36, 38 of the lid 12 arefastened about their periphery, such as but not limited to by cornerwelds 42 or other mechanical means. The inner sheet member 38 can havehem portion 70 on both sides of the member 38 along the length of theinside surface 46. An inside surface 44 of the sheet member 36 and aninside surface 46 of the sheet member 38 are positioned in an opposingspaced apart relationship to provide adequate clearance for positioningof a reinforcement or sandwich member 48 in the interior 40. The lid 12also has a coupling 50 for attaching one end of the actuators 28 to aninner surface 45.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, a series of the sandwich members 48 arepositioned in a distributed manner in the interior 40, such as to helpreinforce and thereby prevent the lid 12 from undesired bending orbecoming otherwise deformed due to applied forces to the rim 39 and/orthe top and side portions 43, 37. Inclusion of the sandwich members 48in the interior 40 allows for a sufficiently rigid construction of thecomposite lid 12 to be made from sheet metal materials, while providingthe composite lid 12 of sufficient overall thickness and lightness to beoperated by the actuators 28 and held in the open configuration asdesired. The sandwich member 48 has face sheets or layers 52 that arebonded to the surfaces 44, 46, thereby providing an integral compositelid 12 consisting of metal sheet members 36, 38 and sandwich members 48.

Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, each sandwich member 48 has the face layers52 that are bonded to a corrugated core 54, such as but not limited tohoneycomb, in order to provide what is typically referred to as asandwich panel that is used in a wide variety of applications where highstrength and light weight are desired. The face layers 52 can be madefrom a wide variety of materials, such as but not limited to paper,metals, plastics, and composites. The core 54 consists of a corrugatedcross-sectional shape, as a hexagonal shown in FIG. 5, circular shapes,or any other polygonal shapes such as but not limited to triangular andquadrilateral. The corrugated core 54 can be made from a wide variety ofmaterials including cellulose (e.g. paper), metals (e.g. aluminum),plastics, and composite materials such as but not limited to carbon orglass fibre composite materials, resin impregnated papers, and the like.The face layers 52 use adhesive 56 or other suitable mechanicalfasteners for bonding the sandwich member 48 to the sheet members 36,38. Preferably, the core 54 is made of a cellulosic material formed in ahoneycomb structure, due to its desirable strength to weight ratio andresistance to fatigue failures and deformation. For example, thesandwich members 48 can be composed of face layers 52 made of virginKraft paper and bonded by water soluble glue to the corrugated cardboardhoneycomb core 54.

Referring to FIG. 7, during manufacture 100, the composite lid 12 ismade by forming 102 the outer sheet member 36 to define the initial opentopped interior 40 having the top surface 43 and the surrounding rim 39.The side portions 37 can have a chamfer or bevel formed 103 at thejunction between the top portion 43 and the rim 39 to provide arelatively narrow angled flat surface around the upper periphery of thelid 12, if desired. The inner sheet member 38 is sized 104 to fit insidethe rim 39 periphery and the lock 32 and cylinder coupling 50 hardwareare attached 106 to the inner surface 45. One side of the sandwichmembers 48 are then fastened 108 to the surface 44 of the sheet member36. The sheet member 38 is then positioned between the rim 39 periphery,locatable by the chamfered side portion 37 if present, and then thesurface 46 is fastened 110 to the other side of the sandwich members 48to enclose the interior 40. The sheet members 36, 38 can then befastened 112, preferably mechanically, around the inner rim 39periphery, such as but not limited to by welds 42. Fastening of thesheet members 36, 38 around the rim 39 periphery can help to reinforcethe integral coupling between the sandwich member 48 and the sheetmembers 36, 38, in order to inhibit separation of the sheet members 36,38 from the sandwich member 48 during operation of the lid 12 whenattached to the box 14. It is recognised that the sandwich members 48are positioned towards the centre of the interior 40 and away from therim 39, when welds 42 are employed, to help reduce the occurrence of anydamage to the sandwich members 48 during assembly of the lid 12. It isfurther recognised that a single enlarged sandwich member 48 can besubstituted for the series of smaller sandwich members 48 (shown in FIG.4), if desired. The assembled composite lid 12 can then be fastened 114to the box 14 by the hinge 26.

Referring to FIG. 8, an alternative embodiment of the composite lid 12is shown. It should be noted that a sandwich member 68 has the upperface layer 52 bonded by adhesive 56 (see FIG. 5) to the inner surface 44of the outer sheet member 36. However, the corrugated core 54 of thesandwich member 68 is connected on the top to the upper face layer 52but on the bottom to an inner sheet member 58. Accordingly, the innersheet member 58 can be made of materials similar to the outer sheetmember 36. Therefore, the sandwich member 68 is composed the core 54bonded to both the upper face layer 52 and the inner sheet member 58,which is used to enclose the interior 40 while also being part of thestructure of the sandwich member 68.

For the sandwich members 48, 68, it is recognised that an importantconsideration is the fastening means, such as adhesive 56, which is usedto bond the face layer(s) 52 and inner sheet member 58 to the core 54.The fastening means should securely attach the layer(s) 52 and member 58to the core 54 in order for loads to be transmitted from the outer sheetmember 36 to the inner sheet member 58 through the core 54, whileinhibiting separation of the component parts of the sandwich member 48,68. For example, if the fastening means between the core 54 and thelayer(s) 52 and/or member 58 fails, the structural rigidity of thecomposite lid 12 may be compromised. It is noted that the fasteningmeans of the core 54 can be important in sandwich panels that usehoneycomb cores 54 because of the relatively small surface area overwhich the honeycomb edges contact the surfaces of the face layer(s) 52and member 58.

Referring to FIGS. 4, 6, and 8, coverage of adhesive 56 on either thelayer 52 or core 54, for attaching the respective sandwich numbers 48,68to the inner sheet member 38, 58, can be discontinuous about a region 72adjacent to couplings 50, which attach the actuator 28 to the lid 12.For example, attachment of the coupling 50 by welding to the inner sheetmember 38 can cause warping of the member 38, thus helping to promotedelamination of the adhesive if present in the region 72. Accordingly,it is preferable to exclude application of adhesive 56 between thesandwich member 48,68 and the sheet member 38,58 in the region 72 wherethrough attachment of the coupling 50 thereto.

Although the invention has been described with reference to certainspecific embodiments, various modifications thereof will be apparent tothose skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe invention as outlined in the claims appended hereto.

1. A composite lid for a vehicle storage container, the lid comprising:an outer sheet member including a top portion having a first innersurface with a rim portion extending around a periphery of the topportion; an inner sheet member positioned in a spaced apart relationshipto the top portion, the inner sheet member having a second inner surfaceopposed to the first inner surface to define an enclosed interior; and asandwich member fixedly secured in the enclosed interior for reinforcingthe structural integrity of the lid, the sandwich member having acorrugated core bonded on one side to the first inner surface and bondedon the other side to the second inner surface.
 2. The composite lid ofclaim 1, wherein the sandwich member further comprises a first facelayer that is attached between the corrugated core and the first innersurface.
 3. The composite lid of claim 2, wherein the sandwich memberfurther comprises a second face layer that is attached between thecorrugated core and the second inner surface.
 4. The composite lid ofclaim 2, wherein the corrugated core is bonded directly to the secondinner surface of the inner sheet member.
 5. The composite lid of claim4, wherein the outer sheet member and the inner sheet member are made ofsimilar material.
 6. The composite lid of claim 5, wherein the materialis metal selected from the group comprising steel and aluminum.
 7. Thecomposite lid of claim 3 further comprising a plurality of mechanicalfasteners for securing the inner sheet member to the outer sheet memberaround the rim periphery.
 8. The composite lid of claim 4 furthercomprising a plurality of mechanical fasteners for securing the innersheet member to the outer sheet member around the rim periphery.
 9. Thecomposite lid of claim 2, wherein the corrugated core is a honeycombstructure.
 10. The composite lid of claim 9, wherein the honeycombstructure has a cross-sectional shape selected from the group comprisingpolygonal and circular.
 11. The composite lid of claim 10, wherein thecross-sectional shape is hexagonal.
 12. The composite lid of claim 2,wherein the corrugated core is made of material selected from the groupcomprising metals, plastics, and composites.
 13. The composite lid ofclaim 2, wherein the first face layer is made of material selected fromthe group comprising metals, plastics, and composites.
 14. The compositelid of claim 9, wherein the first face layer is made of cellulosicmaterial.
 15. The composite lid of claim 14, wherein the honeycombstructure is made of cellulosic material.
 16. The composite lid of claim15 further comprising side portions for positioning the outer sheetmember to the inner sheet member in the spaced apart relationship. 17.The composite lid of claim 16 further comprising the inner sheet memberhaving a coupling configured for coupling with at least one actuator foropening the lid when connected to a box of the container.
 18. Thecomposite lid of claim 17, wherein the bonding of the sandwich member isdiscontinuous around a region of the second inner surface adjacent tothe coupling, the discontinuous bonding region for inhibitingdelamination of the bonding between the sandwich member and the secondinner surface.
 19. The composite lid of claim 2 further comprising aplurality of the sandwich members.
 20. The composite lid of claim 19,wherein the plurality of sandwich members are positioned in a centralregion of the enclosed interior and spaced from the periphery of therim.
 21. A method of manufacturing a composite lid for a vehicle storagecontainer, the method comprising the steps of: forming an outer sheetmember to include a top portion having a first inner surface and a rimportion extending around a periphery of the top portion; bonding oneside of a sandwich member to the first inner surface, the sandwichmember having a corrugated core; and bonding a second inner surface ofan inner sheet member to the other side of the sandwich member forpositioning the inner sheet member in a spaced apart relationship to thetop portion, the second inner surface opposed to the first inner surfaceto define an enclosed interior; wherein the sandwich member reinforcesthe structural integrity of the lid by having the corrugated core bondedto both the first inner surface and the second inner surface.
 22. Themethod of manufacturing the composite lid of claim 21 further comprisingthe step of attaching a first face layer between the corrugated core andthe first inner surface.
 23. The method of manufacturing the compositelid of claim 22 further comprising the step of attaching a second facelayer between the corrugated core and the second inner surface.
 24. Themethod of manufacturing the composite lid of claim 22 further comprisingthe step of securing the inner sheet member to the outer sheet memberaround the rim periphery by a plurality of mechanical fasteners.
 25. Themethod of manufacturing the composite lid of claim 23, wherein thecorrugated core is a honeycomb structure made of a cellulosic material.26. The method of manufacturing the composite lid of claim 21, whereinthe bonding of the sandwich member in discontinuous around a region ofthe second inner surface adjacent to an acutator coupling for inhibitingdelamination of the bonding between the sandwich member and the secondinner surface, the actuator coupling configured for coupling with atleast one actuator for opening the lid.